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Hoberman Sphere wins top prize for Oxford post-grad

The Student Engineer

An Oxford University post-grad has won first place in Stratasys’ annual Extreme Redesign Challenge Awards for recreating a Hoberman Sphere.

Hoberman Sphere
Hoberman Sphere (Image: Stratasys)

PhD student Daniel Fahy took first place in the ‘Art, Jewelry and Architecture’ category winning a $2,500 scholarship, a free Stratasys FDM 3D Printer for his university for a year and a printout of his winning design.

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Having previously won the same category in 2017, for this year’s competition Fahy used his extensive knowledge of engineering and past experiences with 3D printing to recreate the Hoberman Sphere from scratch within just a few weeks.

Daniel Fahy (Image: Stratasys)

Fahy said: “I feel privileged to have won this competition. The main reason I entered was because it allowed me to be creative and explore my passion for engineering and design via a project of my own.

“While the Extreme Redesign Challenge provides guidelines, 3D printing gives you the design freedom to bring ideas to life that I previously thought not possible. This can be liberating, but also challenging, as you need to create a design that looks good but also functions as a 3D model.

“I’m particularly delighted to have won a Stratasys FDM 3D printer for our university for the coming year,” he added. “I believe all students should have access to this technology.”

The Extreme Redesign Awards, hosted by GrabCAD and Stratasys, invites students globally from secondary to tertiary education to redesign an existing piece of art, jewelry or architecture, or create an entirely new one. A jury of industry figures evaluate entries based on their creativity, how mechanically sound they are and whether they could realistically be produced.

“Daniel’s winning design perfectly exemplifies the level of creative innovation we receive globally each year as part of our Extreme Redesign Challenge,” said Gina Scala, Director of Marketing, Global Education, Stratasys.

A dedicated 3D printing laboratory was set up in Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science in January 2019. The Stratasys FDM 3D Printer has been installed at the Department’s Oxford Thermofluids Institute.